Wednesday, 26 February 2014

The Mothership The Daleks by Jeffrey Zyra

The Daleks

Reviewed
by Jeffrey Zyra

“Your
legs are paralyzed. You will recover shortly, unless you force us to use our
weapons again. In that case, the condition will be permanent. You two, help
him.”

If
An Unearthly Child started the legend of Doctor Who then the next story The
Daleks was the springboard it needed to be the success it truly became. With the cliffhanger to episode one “The Dead
Planet” when you see the Daleks arm with that suction cup at the end for the
first time something special had been hatched.
Yes it wasn’t until the next
episode “The Survivors” do we get our first look at the famous pepper pots that
we all know and love. Thus begins a 50
year relationship between The Doctor and The Daleks one that fans have enjoyed
and loved.

The
story is pretty basic and is the typical Doctor Who story of getting captured
and escaping but it goes quite deeper than that. Now remember this is 1963/1964 and the
subject of racism wasn’t tackled much in that era but The Daleks is a story
about racism. You can even bring it to
today’s series of events in the world.
The Daleks hate the Thals and all humans because they are
different. That’s what makes them so
evil. They are the ultimate bully. Their
way of thinking will always be their downfall and The Doctor will always be
around to defeat them.

The
Daleks were created because they did not want bug eyed monsters. Which as it turned out was a stroke of good
fortune as The Daleks with their one eye and metal casing turned out to be the
most popular and famous of all Doctor Who villains. Terry
Nation’s creation took off like crazy and became immensely popular and had to
be brought back in the next series and the next one and the rest is history as
they say.

The
Daleks also introduces us to the Thals who start out as a peaceful people but
driven to fighting as The Daleks would be destroying them with yet another
bomb. Plus they get a little bit of a push
from Ian as he tricks them into taking action.
Watching their evolution through this story and how different they are
compared to future appearances makes it sad how peaceful and at ease they were
before The Doctor showed up.

I
enjoyed watching The Daleks. You still
get a hint of the TARDIS crew not really trusting one another. You get a hint of The Doctor being selfish
and manipulative trying to get his own
way. By sabotaging the fluid link The
Doctor almost kills himself and his fellow passengers. You also get more of a hint of Ian being that
man of action. William Russell is really
good in The Daleks and he has some really good scenes. Most notably when he is trying to get the
Thals to help him by using reverse psychology on them plus he does a real good
job impersonating a Dalek also.

The
Daleks is a very entertaining story despite its length and doesn’t seem to bog
down or get dull like An Unearthly Child.
It is of course a very historic story as it is the first appearance by
the Daleks and they seem like the Daleks that we all know. It is a story that has a good message and
one that can be applied to today’s world.
The Daleks is also the first true science fiction story in Doctor Who
and it is a really good story to watch over again from time to time.